Crain's Detroit Business - 25th Anniversary Issue, May 3, 2010 - (Page 18)

Page 18 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS May 3, 2010 Entrepreneurs turn to SmartStart to get going People laughed at enAllen was worried that trepreneur Tanya Allen’s yet another product first business idea — would go on the shelf. maxi pads with wings — S o l u t i o n s Then she remembered so she put her prototype TechTown. on a shelf and forgot Since the last time about it. Until years later Allen had been in touch when a friend called, saywith TechTown, the ing she’d seen a similar Wayne State University-afproduct on sale at the grofiliated business incubacery store. tor had launched Smart“I was so deflated that I Start, an entrepreneurial Nancy Kaffer said, ‘God, if you give me training and resource one more idea, I won’t put program with the goal of it on the shelf,’ ” Allen said. generating 400 sustainable compaSo when Allen came up with an nies in the next three years. There idea for disposable undergar- are 107 companies currently in the ments, designed for menstruating program. women or adults with minor inAllen was accepted into Smartcontinence, she was determined to Start earlier this year and has make it work. She formed a compa- been busily absorbing the inforny, Livonia-based Forever Fresh, mation she needs to advance her and began the work of bringing the business. The Forever Fresh prodproduct to market. Things weren’t uct is now in production and going that smoothly, though, and awaiting distribution. Small Biz SmartStart is a two-year program designed to meet business owners at every stop along the way, said Ebony Johnson, senior SmartStart support leader. “We meet them where they are and ask where they want to go in the near future,” she said. “We work to develop milestones and connect the businesses to resources to achieve those milestones.” Milestones can be as basic as writing a business plan, or as complicated as developing a prototype or obtaining capital, Johnson said. There’s also an educational component to the program, she said. The entrepreneurs meet twice a month for workshops that cover such topics as how to vet a business model or develop a market strategy. Local investors are also invited in for a showcase. Entrepreneur Carole Johnson, CEO of Detroit-based CYJ Enterpris- es L.L.C., has been working with TechTown since before the inception of SmartStart but transitioned to the program when it was created. Her company, e-Cyren, which produces an online emergency communication system for child care and adult day-care providers, formed in 2005 but launched a prototype last fall. “It helped me build the infrastructure for my business,” she said, in everything from developing the business plan to securing financing. “What has been extremely valuable to me is the contacts,” said Johnson, who participated in SmartStart for the full two years. “Now that I am not in the program, I have made valuable contacts that will allow me to move forward with a profitable business.” E-Cyren is still in the pre-revenue stage, Johnson said, but should be profitable by year’s end. Allen said she’s received invaluable help from SmartStart. “They give you so much support, starting with access to research data,” she said. “It costs a lot of money for small businesses to access information like that. And I like the camaraderie with other business owners. We’re all at different levels of launching our business. It’s great networking, to not only get information but to be able to help other business owners.” Allen said SmartStart is helping her find working capital for the business as she awaits her first product shipment, which will be handled by a major Michigan medical distributor. Forever Fresh is also currently under review by three Michigan-based grocery chains, she said. Nancy Kaffer: (313) 446-0412, nkaffer@crain.com. Detroit’s shrinking population deepens water department problems BY NANCY KAFFER CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Litigation involving the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department was settled last year, but with an uncertain leadership situation in the department’s top echelons and a growing sludge removal crisis, it seems the water department is still far from satisfying the terms of a 33-year federal lawsuit. Department Director Pamela Turner, along with two other top department officials, are planning to resign. Turner has “expressed interest” in resigning, according to Dan Lijana, a communications manager for Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, but a retirement date hasn’t been confirmed. Like many of Detroit’s problems, the root of the water system’s woes is the city’s declining population. “Why we have not been able to satisfy all the consent judgments is because of the poor economic condition of the region where we live,” said U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens, who has had oversight of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department since 1977. “If we still had the economic conditions of the 1950s, we could do it.” Feikens’ conFeikens trol of the department is the result of a sprawling federal lawsuit concerning Make your mouth water in a different language. New dishes inspired by the flavors of the Pacific Rim. Enjoy a pan-fried Crispy Crab Cake with Asian slaw, then choose from our savory Korean BBQ Arctic Char, sweet and spicy Citrus-Chile Glazed Shrimp and Scallops Skewers, and more. Hurry in and take a break from the ordinary. everything from wastewater disposal to city-suburb relations. The lawsuit was settled by a consent decree, the conditions of which haven’t yet been met. Detroit’s population has shrunk by more than half since its apex in the 1950s, to about 800,000. The remaining customers don’t produce enough revenue to maintain the water system’s infrastructure, Feikens said, much of which dates from that era or earlier. “When you reduce revenue from that number of people, it doesn’t diminish costs,” he said. “It costs almost as much to make 500,000 gallons of water as 2 million.” An influx of cash from the federal government is helping, he said, but won’t be enough to foot the bill for all necessary repairs. And that’s at the heart of the continuing judicial oversight. “Infrastructure is a great part of holding up the success of satisfying the consent judgments,” Feikens said. “If we had the money to repair the infrastructure, it would solve most of them. … There will come a time when all the consent judgments are satisfied … we’re rapidly coming to that point, but we’re not there yet.” The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments estimates that upgrading the water system will cost roughly $20 billion, a price the judge says is out of the water department’s reach. It’s crucial that suburban communities play a more active role in the water system, Feikens said — and that means footing the bill for breakdowns in the system outside of the city. A major milestone was last year’s creation of a water council, he said, which gave the suburban communities that purchase water from the city some say in the system’s governance and placed responsibility for some repairs for system infrastructure in Oakland and Macomb counties in the hands of those governments. “People started saying, ‘we’re real customers of the system, and we need an operational voice,’ ” Feikens said. “The suburbs now have a voice in the operation of the system” through the water board, a model the judge likened to the regional authority that controls Detroit’s Cobo Center. “We now have a settlement between the city and the suburbs in which both sides are given a voice in what the rates are.” Another pressing need is the removal of sludge, the semi-solid material that’s left after wastewater is treated. The city terminated its contract with Texas-based sludge hauler Synagro Technologies after officials from that company were implicated in a municipal bribery investigation. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment has sent a warning letter to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, saying the system is well over the legal limit for sludge storage. Finding landfill space for sludge is always a challenge, Feikens said, noting that system maintenance had fallen since the system contracted with Synagro for sludge removal. Maintaining the water system requires a high level of regional cooperation, said Eric Zeemering, a Michigan native who’s an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at San Francisco State University. Zeemering is the author of an article on Feikens’ long involvement with the water department that will appear in the scholarly journal Public Administration Review later this year. “One issue we have to think about is the cost that will be necessary to continue to bring a complex wastewater system into full compliance with federal and state regulations and to continue to serve a sprawling and expansive metropolitan region,” Zeemering said. Expectations for clean water continue to increase as awareness grows about how environmental quality plays a role in economic development, he said. Nancy Kaffer: (313) 446-0412, nkaffer@crain.com.  http://www.mitchellsfishmarket.com http://www.mitchellsfishmarket.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Detroit Business - 25th Anniversary Issue, May 3, 2010

Crain's Detroit Business 25th Anniversary
Looking Forward
25 Companies to Watch
25 Mainstays
25 People Then and Now
25 Scandals and Dubious Deeds.
25 Philanthropic Gifts
25 Newsmakers of the Year
25 Big Stories
25 Innovations
25 Gone But Not Forgotten
Health Care
Defense
Suppliers
The Internet and Communication
Energy
Finance
Signs of the Times

Crain's Detroit Business - 25th Anniversary Issue, May 3, 2010

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